lostmoonchild: Hello! Here's this week's first update since I'm proud to announce that it's my birthday (no paramedics and/or cops will be needed again this year due to my working today) so as a present to you all, two chapters this week! Thanks for the reviews, I found one of them actually rather funny due to an unintended pun that was pointed out, and I hope this chapter brings some interesting reviews too!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto so don't sue.
Chapter Eighteen
Naruto didn't need to open his eyes to know that Hisoka had just entered his room and smiled to himself as he sensed her approaching cautiously. "Five more minutes." Naruto mumbled when he felt the girl's small hands shake his arm.
He heard a sigh leave her lips as her hands dropped, feeling her eyes on him for a moment or two. He peeked at her and saw that she had turned to leave but before she could take a step, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her onto the bed. "Good morning, Hi-Hi." Naruto said with a grin. "Did I surprise you?"
Hisoka grinned at him, all traces of her fear from the previous day gone. "No!" Hisoka grinned.
Naruto felt his heart clench tightly in his chest upon realizing that she wasn't using her voice again. Tucking his blanket around the both of them, Naruto pressed his forehead against hers. "I wanna talk to you about something, Hi-Hi." Naruto told her. "I swear that you're not in trouble and I don't want you to think that I'm ever going to abandon you. Understand?"
Immediately Hisoka nodded. "Because I talked?" Hisoka asked, tears gathering in her eyes.
"Hey, don't cry. I'm actually pretty happy you talked yesterday." Naruto told her. "I just don't understand why you got upset when you did."
The girl's face showed her fear before she buried her face in his shirt. "Was it something Sasuke or Orochimaru said or did?" Naruto asked carefully. "You know they can't hurt you anymore."
"T-They liked it when I-I screamed." Hisoka's eyes looked desperately into his as she spoke, causing the blonde to inwardly flinch at the softness of her voice. "I th-thought if I didn't s-scream… th-they'd leave me alone. Th-then I tried t-to tell… tell them to stop a-and…" She held her breath for a moment before looking at him. "S-Sasuke sa-said that talking wa-was b-b-bad."
Naruto hugged the girl softly as he murmured soft words of comfort. "Talking isn't bad, Hi-Hi." Naruto told her. "I want you to be comfortable enough that you can talk. I want you to be able to tell me whatever crosses your mind."
Hisoka clung to him as she listened to him talk softly. He wasn't mad that she had talked. He wanted her to talk to them so they could hear what was going on in her mind. There was nothing to be afraid of if she did decide to tell them about whatever she thought. "I…" She fought the urge to cower as she forced her underused voice to work again. "I…"
Naruto watched her with tender eyes, his entire face encouraging her to keep trying. "It's okay, Hi-Hi." Naruto told her.
"I'm hungry."
The blonde started laughing as he threw the blankets back. "Then let's get some food!" Naruto said with a laugh. "See, Hisoka, I'm not upset."
Having the feeling that everything would be okay if she did talk, Hisoka nodded and smiled brightly. "Are they really going to watch me for the next ten years?" Hisoka asked softly.
"Yeah. So I've been doing some thinking since they said that and if you really do want to become a kunoichi then I can enroll you into the academy in four months." Naruto told her.
"Really? I can become a kunoichi?"
"Yeah. You just need to promise you'll be safe and do your absolute best."
"I promise."
"Okay. Hurry up and eat. After breakfast we'll burn off that extra chakra."
(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)
He had come to Konoha believing that he would be playing a part in a child's death and would be leaving with the knowledge that he was now that child's godfather. Gaara could only imagine how his siblings would respond especially considering that they had both been furious when they discovered that a child might die. Now when he went home he could honestly tell them that the child was now his goddaughter.
Gaara couldn't deny that he understood the blonde's reasoning behind having him serve as Hisoka's godfather. As a former Jinchuuriki, Gaara still possessed some of Shukaku's chakra as well as traces of Kyuubi's chakra, which was perfect for a child that required small bits of survive. The only other person that would have been a candidate was Hachibi's Jinchuuriki but he could understand why exactly Naruto was determined to avoid the Raikage.
The redheaded Kazekage barely listened to the conversation that was currently taking place, knowing it was dealing with improving relationships between the countries. He didn't really want to be sitting in Tsunade's office but what could he do? The duties to his people came before his own personal wants.
Suddenly there was a piercing flare of chakra that sent them flying to their feet, instincts yelling at them to defend themselves. Their attention went to the busty Hokage upon hearing the sigh that left her lips. "Hisoka." Tsunade explained simply. "If the amount of demonic chakra gets too high for Naruto's comfort then he'll take her to a training ground. We can go if you all would like to see."
Nobody said a word as Tsunade led them to the training field to where the two were, a small smile showing on Tsunade's lips when they saw Naruto helping Hisoka up. "Nice try. Just back off a little bit and maybe you won't make such a huge bang." Naruto laughed.
"Not funny!"
Tsunade raised an eyebrow in surprise when she heard Hisoka's voice, wondering if the girl was going to be as talkative as Naruto or if she was going to be somewhat quiet. "Sure it is. Take a look over there. You made a large enough explosion that the Kages came to check it out." Naruto laughed.
It was pointless to hide from the blonde at this exact moment when he knew full well they had been watching. "What happened?" Gaara asked.
"She got a little too excited with the Bijuu chakra." Naruto laughed. "We're focusing on making creatures to defend herself with."
"I make kitties." Hisoka said with a grin. "I'm trying to make a fox but they're tricky buttheads." Her eyes went back to Naruto. "Kyuu-chan's laughing at me, Daddy!"
So this what he would be looking forward to if something were to ever happen to Naruto? Gaara nodded slightly, watching as the girl closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Focus the chakra." Naruto told her. "Your teachers are gonna be telling you the same thing but for right now we're going to focus on the demon chakra. I'll let your teachers handle your normal chakra. Remember that each chakra feels different so separate them."
"Okay."
They watched as the red chakra slowly formed around the child, attempting to take a shape. There was a look of absolute concentration etched onto her features as the chakra creature began to take on more defining characteristics. "Okay, I'm going to make a shadow clone now and I'm going to make it look like Sasuke-teme."
Hisoka's eyes shot open as Naruto made the clone, her entire face contorting in fear. "Naruto, stop it." Tsunade ordered.
The Sasuke clone moved towards Hisoka, vanishing in a puff of smoke when the creature attacked before it imploded and sending the girl back onto the ground. "Why can't I do it? I see a shadow clone that looks like him and it blows up after making it go away!" Hisoka shouted in frustration.
"It takes practice." Naruto said with a tender smile. "Don't worry about it. We'll try again tomorrow."
"But I wanna keep going!"
"Anymore and you'll be going to the hospital for chakra exhaustion. Again."
The girl was determined, that much was for certain. "Just what exactly made you think to do this exercise with her?" Lord Raikage questioned.
"Hi-Hi needed a way to vent and needs to learn control so it works both ways." Naruto said with a small shrug. "Later today we'll start touching weapon and taijutsu training. I don't care if her mother was a Kairi, I'm making sure my daughter knows how to defend herself."
Tsunade put a hand on the girl's head when she was given a hug and looked down into the girl's excited gray eyes. "Good morning, Hisoka-chan." Tsunade said with a pleasant smile.
"Good morning!"
Hisoka frowned slightly upon realizing that her voice had gone silent again. "Feeling happy today?" Tsunade questioned.
"Very. Daddy says I can go to school to be a kunoichi but we gotta get that red chakra I keep taking from him under control so I don't hurt no one."
Naruto's cheeks turned slightly pink when the girl's voice came back long enough to say "daddy" before falling silent again. He couldn't deny that while he was about to become her father, it was still strange hearing someone call him that. "Well, Daddy," Tsunade said as Hisoka moved to give Gaara a big hug, "you'd better be thinking about which last name you want Hisoka to have and don't forget that you're expected in my office this afternoon."
"Yeah, yeah. I haven't forgotten."
Gaara patted the girl's head and watched with amusement as she began spinning around as fast as she could before she fell down. The redhead allowed himself to smile at the child's antics before he nodded slightly to Naruto, his eyes conveying a silent message as Hisoka scrambled back to her feet. "Are you okay?" Gaara asked as he looked at the girl after Naruto nodded slightly in understanding.
"I'm okay! I like spinning!"
It was almost like she was relearning how to talk. He could see that behind the fear she felt, there was amusement. Gaara smiled faintly as he patted the girl on the head, watching as she darted back over to Naruto. "C'mon, Hi-Hi, we'd better make sure Kakashi-sensei doesn't try getting out of babysitting duty tonight."
"His apartment smells like dog! He's gonna call that little pug thing again, I just know it!"
"Would you rather stay with Kiba? You're gonna be put on missions with somebody that has a dog-nin when you're older so you might as well get used to the idea now."
A look of frustration left Hisoka's lips as she looked at Naruto with a look that told them all she didn't like the idea one bit. "Fine." Hisoka sighed. "I don't like it though."
"I know and I really don't care." Naruto told her. "Besides, you should be grateful Kakashi's been trying to get you used to little dogs cause I know for a fact he has a freaking huge one."
Maybe she could put up with the little dog if Naruto was telling the truth about Kakashi having a large dog. Sighing, the girl pouted softly before watching as the Kages left the area to return to their meeting. "They really don't know what to think yet, do they?" Hisoka asked softly.
"Not really. You just haven't been making large explosions so you caught them off guard today." Naruto replied.
"What does Gaara want?"
"Oh, you noticed?" Naruto grinned slightly as he rubbed the back of his head. "Um, he just wants to have some grownup guy time so he and I are gonna hang out while Kakashi's got you for the night."
"What'cha gonna do?" She held onto Naruto's hand as they left the training area.
"Guy stuff."
"What kind of guy stuff?"
"Stuff you will not be doing until you're Granny Tsunade's age if I have a say in it."
"What stuff?"
Naruto sighed a little before answering, "It's a grownup thing and when you turn eleven I will explain it."
"But eleven's not a grownup."
"No, but it's the age that Sakura-chan wants me to explain some grownup stuff to you no matter how much it grosses me out."
Hisoka stared blankly at Naruto for a moment before asking, "In Kabuto's lab thing, there was some ladies in cages and sometimes they'd be bleeding but they wouldn't be hurt where they were bleeding. Is that one of the grownup things?"
Just how much would he have to not explain? "Did the ladies tell you why?" Naruto questioned cautiously.
"No. They said that I should be grateful I wouldn't live long enough to do it too. Does Sakura-chan do it?"
Deciding that this was by far the most embarrassing conversation ever, Naruto covered his eyes. "Let's… just drop it." Naruto said finally. "It's not a conversation that you should have in public, ya know?"
"Oh. Okay. One more question."
"What?"
"Do guys bleed there too?"
lostmoonchild: I swear that Hi-chan's taking on a life of her own. It's actually amusing to imagine the look of horror on Naruto's face at her questions so my amusement level has gone up. Okay, I'm gonna go so read and review!